Improvements to Help: Problem with Members?

+8 votes
297 views
Help guidance is lengthy, difficult, and circular.
in WikiTree Tech by Steven Beall G2G2 (2.6k points)
retagged by Darlene Athey-Hill
Hi Steven - can you point out a couple of specific places where you feel (for example) that a passage or area in that help page is either:

1) Lengthy

2) Difficult

3) Circular

Or just in general, help others understand what you find challenging about the help page. If ultimately we need to rewrite this help page because you and/or others have challenges understanding or following its guidance, it helps to understand where it's clear and where it's not. Thanks!
And just for clarity, I'm presuming you mean this page here?

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Problems_with_Members
Yes, correct.
It’s very good in general. I had problems in several areas where the guidance is to “Start with Problems with Members,” which takes you back to the beginning. For example, the section titled “How to Submit a Request” has such a statement, highlighted in bold and yellow shading.
OK - I think I see what you're referring to - it's not that document as a single document. It's the document in reference to all the other links and documents it references as well as the other documents that reference it. Let me get a grasp on a few of those things and I'll form up an initial answer. BTW - I'm not the one who edits these pages, but I can try to help form this up so that it makes sense to those that do... Or at least get this on the right path. I hope.
I added tags for mentors and project leaders to bring this to their attention.

1 Answer

+13 votes

OK - so here's what I'm seeing that I believe is causing confusion:

- There is a Help: Problems with Members page that demonstrates the entire process from start to finish on how to address "problems with members". The page itself is fairly straightforward, but appears to interact with other pages it is linked to in an awkward fashion.

- One example of that is when it connects to the Help: Mentor Intervention Request page. Under the Submit a Request section, it highlights that you should go back to the Help: Problems with Members and start over, implying that you would never be able to submit a MIR if you followed this circular logic literally.

- Recommendations:

-- One - we should clean up the language on the identified section in the MIR page - perhaps clarifying that if you have already followed this path, you do not need to return to it again. Maybe change it to, "If you think someone else needs a mentor and have not already gone through the Problems with Members procedure, please start with the Problems with Members procedure first."

-- Two - we should review other pages linked both to and from Help: Problems with Members to ensure that the logical references don't indicate that you should keep returning to the beginning and restart the process if you've already been through it initially, unless there's a specific reason why you should do so.

Let me know if there are other specific examples of what should be recommended and we can begin to find out who can address these. Thanks!

by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
Thank you Scott. You got it exactly correct. I have now contacted a mentor for help.
Hi, Scott and Steven --

Thank you! We'll take a look at this. It's something that I know others have gotten hung up on, as well. I'm sure we can probably make some adjustments that make things a little easier to follow.

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